The present invention relates generally to the field of jewelry manufacturing and more specifically to a machine and method for scanning an object and manufacturing a miniaturized replica of the object in a precious metal such as gold and silver.
After the 1920""s, machining tools became specialized in their applications. From about 1930 to 1950 more powerful and rigid machine tools were built to effectively utilize the improved cutting materials that had become available. These specialized machine tools made it possible to manufacture standardized products economically. The machines, however, lacked flexibility and they were not adaptable to a variety of products or to variations in manufacturing standards. As a result, in the past decades engineers have developed highly versatile and accurate machine tools that have been adapted to computer control, making possible the manufacture of products with precise details.
Jewelry holds an important place in history and continues to play an integral role in society today. The giving and receiving of precious metals, rare stones, and other forms of jewelry has been the universal sign of love, gratuity and loyalty. Rare stones such as rubies and emeralds can be cut and polished to accent the light that shines through the stones and may subsequently be mounted on a ring or worn as a pendant. Precious metals, such as gold and silver, can also be worn as rings and pendants but also have the additional characteristic of being able to be melted and poured into casts of many different shapes. These characteristics allow these metals to take on many different forms, thus giving jewelry making many more possibilities.
Casting is accomplished in two stages: first, an impression or negative mold is formed by the prototyping machine; and, second, a positive cast or reproduction is made of the original wax object from the negative impression. The term negative refers to the hollow form or mold into which the liquefied casting material is poured. The term positive means the copy or reproduction resulting from filling the negative mold with the substances selected for the specific cast, which are then allowed to harden. Plaster or clay is frequently used for the negative mold, and gold or silver for the positive or final work.
A novel way of personalizing a piece of jewelry for a parent is to make a miniaturized bust of their son or daughter. Such a trinket could be worn on a bracelet or as a pendant for a necklace. The present system provides making t h e bust hollow so that larger busts could be made of a precious metal and placed on shelves. In the present system, one of several scanning technologies is used to capture a numerical multi dimensional profile of a child, a child""s head or another object. The object""s image is captured through any method capable of digital capturing, such as laser based scanning, two dimensional video silhouette images or white light phase measurement, for example. The digital image is stored via a numerical coding system. The generated numerical code is used to instruct a prototyping machine in the output of layers of wax that will subsequently be used to make a piece of jewelry. The present machine will be discussed further below. Such techniques of capturing three-dimensional profiles are used in the fields of motion picture special effects and the custom fitting clothing industry. The clothing industry, for example, uses laser based scanning to measure customers and make exact custom fit clothes for the customer, from head to foot. In the present method of image capturing, a person or object is placed in a scanning booth and a three or four-dimensional numerical profile is generated. This numerical profile can contain hundreds of thousands, or more, data points, which are stored on data discs. This digital data can be processed by processing circuitry and manipulated by computer software and even provided with pre-existing three dimensional background profiles, to create a composite three-dimensional picture. The present method involves using a three-dimensional computer profile as the instructions for creating a miniaturized replica of the scanned object. The method uses a wax replica of the object to make the inside cavity of a mold. Melted gold or silver is poured or injected into the mold to make a cast of the object. The cast replica can be finished with polishing or coloring and may be worn as a piece of jewelry.
There are several ways to obtain multi-dimensional profiles of faces, animals, full bodies, flowers, or other tangible items. In the preferred embodiment, white light based scanners included in a scanning booth are used. These scanners capture hundreds of thousands of data points of the object scanned. Processing circuitry then compiles, compares, and manipulates the data to produce an extremely accurate multi-dimensional profile of the scanned product. This process is known as white light phase measurement profilometry (PMP). The PMP full body scan system is now commercially available. Another method of capturing a profile in three-dimensions is laser based scanning whereby one or more lasers are used to acquire a full three-dimensional image of the scanned object. A third way of capturing an object""s image is two dimensional video silhouette imaging. These digital capturing methods produce numerical locations for hundreds of thousands of measurement points, which may correlate to a full three-dimensional human head, for example.
In the preferred embodiment, a scanning booth is used to scan and capture the multi-dimensional numerical profile of the subject. The numerical profile is sent to a computer where it is manipulated as to distortion, size, background, etc. The computer generates a numerical code that comprises instructions for a rapid prototyping machine, such as the Sanders prototyping machine. This numerical code is sent to the prototyping machine and instructs the machine in the output of layers of wax. The first layer of wax is placed on a worktable and the second layer of wax is laid across the first layer. This layering process continues with the next layer being placed upon the last layer until a wax block is created. Each layer in the block may only be {fraction (3/1000)} of an inch (in) thick. The block of wax contains two waxes each of which melts at a different temperature. When the layering procedure is completed, the first wax is a replica of the scanned object and the second wax surrounds the scanned object and defines the outer boundaries of the block. In the preferred embodiment, green wax is used to replicate the scanned object and red wax is the complementary wax used in the block of wax i.e., everything in the block that is not the scanned object. The red wax is has a lower melting temperature than the green wax. Therefore, when the entire block of wax is put into water that is heated to the specified temperature, the outer red wax will melt away and what remains is the green wax which is the replica of the scanned object. This green wax is then used in what is called the xe2x80x9clost wax processxe2x80x9d whereby the wax is surrounded by investment that becomes a mold of the replica. The green wax and investment are heated and the green wax burns out and the cavity it creates is used to make cast replicas in precious, semi-precious, or base metals. The resulting mold is used in the casting process using any of the well known casting techniques.
When the object is a person, the finished product can be a full bust with exacting features such as nose, eyes, ears, etc. Any cavity or flat surfaces created by the present method can be colored with epoxies, resins, enamels, or decorated further to give color contrast. Partial and segregated reproduction can also take place, for example a miniature full body of a boy can be made from separately produced parts. A wax block of the legs could be made and cast into platinum, a wax block of the arms can be made and cast into silver, the head could be made out of gold and so on. The segregated pieces can be attached, by glue or soldering for example, to produce the replica.
A method for making a piece of jewelry involving a scanning booth, a rapid prototyping machine that is used to make a mold and a casting process that uses the mold to produces the piece of jewelry, in one embodiment. The scanning booth scans a person or other object and creates a digital profile of the person or object. The digital profile is processed into a numerical profile that is used to control the operation of the rapid prototyping machine in the production of a block of wax. The wax is used in a xe2x80x9clost wax processxe2x80x9d to make a mold of the scanned person or object. The mold is then used in a casting process to produce metal replicas of the scanned object. The finished product is a replica of the object with exacting features such as nose, eyes, ears, etc. Any cavity or flat surface of the metal can be colored with epoxies, resins, enamels, or decorated further to give color contrast. Partial and segregated machining can also take place. The present method truly provides xe2x80x9cpersonalizedxe2x80x9d charms and pieces of jewelry.